There is healing today

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. – Isaiah 53:5

We were in a village church overflowing with people in southern China when I asked the pastor, “How do you account for the growth of your church?”

A four-year-old girl, he related, was in the hospital at the point of death. There was nothing more that the doctors could do and she only had a matter of hours to live. “I went to the parents,” he said, “and asked them if I could go to the hospital and pray for her.”

“Yes,” they exclaimed, grasping at the last straw of hope. They were not Christians and were involved in what he described as a Satanic cult. The pastor went to the hospital and prayed for the little girl, who was immediately healed. Word of her healing spread like wildfire. Subsequently, her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, along with neighbors and friends – more than half of the people in his church – came to faith in Christ as the result of what happened.

“Ah,” you say with a bit of disbelief, “that was in the countryside of China!” You are probably more used to a setting where hospitals have gleaming stainless steel equipment and doctors are trained to prescribe medicine and apply the latest technology.

Has the church in the West forgotten the healing ministry and replaced it with medical science and technology? Many believe our skepticism and doubt short-circuit what God would do, if we only believed He would. They read the Gospels and see how Jesus healed people and wonder why He can’t do it today.

Read through the book of Acts and notice that an expiration date wasn’t placed on the medicine a sick world needs. God is still in the business of healing broken hearts, broken lives and broken bodies.

Used with permission from Guidelines Philippines, Inc. To learn more about Guidelines and the ministry, please write to Box 4000, 1280 Makati City, Philippines or e-mail address [email protected]. You may also visit our website at www.guidelines.org.